by Aral Bereux
‘You’re first watch remember, Commander?’ she teased and rolled onto her stomach to rest. She gave him a flippant wave but inside her heart was pounding.
He grinned and slipped one leg into his pants and then the other. The belt he didn’t bother about. ‘Just stay here where it’s safe,’ he ordered. ‘Please.’
‘Don’t need a watcher to keep me safe,’ she muttered
‘Just one to fuck,’ his eyes narrowed playfully in the doorway. ‘Ahhh…push me, shove you, sweetheart. Just remember that.’
The door closed as quickly as it opened.
She could see through the window if she knelt high enough on the bed. The prisoner was unconscious, or asleep. Either way, he didn’t move as Caden glided past him, bent low and in stealth mode with his gun ready.
When he left her view, she pulled her knees to her chest as the breeze from the open window brushed around her shoulders. The fresh vulnerability overwhelmed her. It was his pull, his charm.
Daniel warned me, he did. Warned me from the second we met until the second he slept.
She felt like a kid all over again, sitting in the estate waiting for the car to take her away, for initiation. Would she go with them or run? She chose to run back then. Look at the mess it got you. His kiss opened her to a world she had pushed away.
Now what dummy? You’ve bagged yourself a watcher.
Her thoughts faltered while she waited for his company. She felt safe with him, wholly safe. Was this Daniel’s warning – the one that her mother spoke about before she left? There’s nothing safe about a preternatural – and a watcher was king of their dark world. Commanding who they wished, taking what they liked from the ignorant. Why would she have anything to fear if Caden was on her side?
Her thoughts raced a million miles.
He’s my watcher.
The door opened for his return. Her mind emptied.
Goose bumps traced along his chest and arms. The Glock slid along the old dresser, leaving his grip to rest beside the last flickering candle, which he extinguished between his thumb and finger.
‘It’s ok to be a little scared,’ he said quietly. ‘I’m used to it.’
‘A little scared gets a lot killed.’ She rested her chin on her knees and he crouched in front of her. All the doubting, nagging thoughts moved away from her mind with the touch of his hands on her thighs.
He creased his brow. ‘Julianna Rae, clingy?’ he lowered her legs over the bed’s edge. ‘I don’t believe that for a moment – just a deer, too. Nothing else out there.’ He reached for the button on her pants. ‘Now, I have the perfect way to make you relax.’
His hand slipped the waist loose and he tugged for her to stand. When they stood together they fell over her ankles. She kicked them to the corner of the room. His shirt followed her pants.
‘He’ll flip. Should not be doing this at all.’ his whisper was low.
He ran his hands along her shoulders, down her arms, to her sides He continued his touch, stroking her gently as he gazed and studied her with a contemplation that took some time.
She felt his gentle push and she was sitting on the bed again. With a raise of his hand his levitation ability flipped her onto her stomach. A small giggle escaped at his throw and it made him smile as he knelt over her thighs.
His thumbs pressed along the tight consigns of her back where it hurt most. She let herself sink into the thin mattress, giving into his strong hands. He unclasped her bra and bent to linger his lips along the line in her skin that it left. She felt the bumps rise and her hairs stand on end. Her eyes closed, a sigh escaped and it was his turn to laugh quietly.
His movements behind her were rushed. It was his underwear. She felt his nakedness in entirety as he lowered himself, kissing the nape of her neck, resting his arms beside her head, careful in keeping his full weight from her tiny frame. He left her again, to work his hands over her back, slowly moving down to tug playfully at her knickers.
‘Still scared?’ he whispered.
She gave her head a barely there shake. ‘No.’
‘Did you mean what you said in the cell?’ he said.
‘What did I say?’
‘That you liked it rough,’ he said quietly.
He ripped her knickers down, to rest around her ankles. He left them there. His hands reached around her waist as he returned for another kiss along her shoulders.
‘You remember that?’ she wanted to turn around and experience his expression.
His hands tightened around her waist, lifting her to rest on her knees. He leaned her until her already tight stomach stretched flat, and her shoulders pulled against his chest. He nipped at her neck.
‘I remember everything.’ His hands caressed her naked body.
‘You do?’ she replied. Her voice was barely there.
His hands ran down her sides, slowly taking in every inch until they stretched out her thighs. She looked down, a small murmur escaped her barely parted lips and he kissed her neck again while his hands stroked her folded legs.
‘You crave me.’ he whispered. His fingers ran along the insides of her thighs, along the crease, against her belly and down again. She could feel her body surrender under his enticement.
She leaned farther into him. The gestures he placed along her body and his touch were illicit. The guilt she felt at his pleasure, swallowed her whole – yet he barely touched her.
Down there.
He nipped her neck again. His teeth pinched her skin, sending shivers through her. His fingers went lower while her neck bled and the taste of her drove him insane. She closed her eyes to the bloodletting that she had experienced once before with Taris; and then she never got rid of him after it.
‘Say it,’ he whispered again, moving his head from one side of her face to the other. ‘Give me permission. Tell me I’m the only one who can hurt you.’
Another kiss to the neck, another slide of the hands along her thighs, and her waist, back to her belly, and down between her thighs again.
So close.
‘Ask me, and I’ll teach you,’ his fingers curled. She closed her eyes and when she leaned her head back, his wet lips touched hers. His fingers curled more. ‘I’ll give it to you if you just say.’
‘I need you,’ she whispered.
He rested his chin on her shoulder. ‘Didn’t hear you,’ he teased. His fingers returned.
She could feel the familiar rise within her. It’d been so long – so many opportunities at the club with so many beautiful men—
His hand gently coaxed her body into temptation, and all the while he nipped her neck, his tongue cleaning up the line of blood running down it, and the dirty old room ceased to exist. His fingers circled the dampness between her thighs. She parted them more, and his beat quickened against her. He breathed loudly into her ear, as one hand moved and the other one held her. She looked down at her submission.
Her body gave in to his every gesture.
‘Say it.’
She said nothing.
He threw her onto her hands and knees. His fingers returned and she felt the sting of him moving in quickly, pushing inside and freezing to take in the forbidden pleasure their bodies gave, and submitting to it. He kissed where he could reach. His hand moved as he rocked in time with her. She trembled under his weight.
‘Don’t hide from me, Julianna.’ His tone made her feel the pleasure. Her body stopped rocking against him as she rode her wave and he slowed for a moment to listen to her moans.
‘Sweet, sweet, Julianna,’ he whispered. ‘But I’m not finished with you yet.’ He twirled his hand through her hair and pulled back.
His pace thrust her against the bed, pinning her between the mattress and his body, and he didn’t submit to his own satisfaction until she cried and begged him to stop.
The silence followed. Their heavy breathing was in unison as he held still, waiting to finish. She rested her eyes and his final grunt told her it was over.
Caden’s weigh
t left her. He studied the ceiling in his silence and caught her stare.
‘Will this get weird between us?’ he asked.
She shook her head silently and slowly and rolled onto her back.
He closed his eyes. ‘Good,’ he said quietly.
They rested shoulder to shoulder, in the moonlit room. Julianna studied the shadows dancing above the door, from the trees swaying in the breeze, outside. Daniel was right, how could she leave now? She didn’t have the courage to mention the connection between her and Taris with the bind they had made so long ago, their pact – the reason Taris always found her.
Caden let out a long, drawn out sigh. ‘I should take watch before Bastiaan wakes,’ he sat, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. ‘He’ll have my ass if I don’t.’
They were too close to the camp where Taris slept. He’d find her this close.
‘Caden,’ she called softly.
His pants obeyed his command and flew into his hands. He put one leg in, then the other and stood, frowning down at her. He buckled his belt and moved to the door, bending for his boots on the way out.
‘You say you have no abilities, yet you block me,’ he said quietly. ‘What’s your big secret?’
Words failed her.
‘Maybe you can tell me in the morning,’ he opened the door quietly. ‘I’ll be in when Bas relieves my watch. Sleep tight, J Rae.’ He paused to look at her and his lips thinned. ‘Thank you.’
Julianna listened to the footsteps creak along the tired floorboards and the door rattling closed, despite his efforts for quiet. Cigarette smoke moved along the breeze and as the tears rolled silently down her cheeks she promised herself that this would never happen again.
CHAPTER 9
4th May, 2018, 0915 hours.
The Farm House, 7 miles west of Camp 2.2.1
Thwack!
Julianna stirred.
Thwack! Thwack!
Julianna thought the sound of a whip lashing against skin was a dream until she peered through the window. The cold reality of taking a prisoner of war set in.
She grabbed her scattered clothes, pulling them on as she went across the floorboards, dancing, and hoping wildly about, until her pants were over her waist. She left her boots beneath the window. Pulling her singlet over her head, she ran outside, bare foot.
Caden flicked his head at the wire screen slamming. Julianna leaping down the stairs two at a time, made him prepare for the tackle she threatened with her quick pace.
‘Stop it!’ she screamed. ‘Stop it! What the hell are you doing?’
‘Go back to the house,’ Daniel said.
Caden blocked her path with his arms extended, side stepping each time she moved, defending his prisoner from her reach. She stood in his long shadow. The sun rose lazily behind him, highlighting the sky in a hue of watercolor oranges and pinks. The breeze rushed over her wet skin in a tickle of spring warmth, to gradually sway the tree branches above them.
She stood stubbornly.
Thwack!
If she could only get past.
Thwack! Thwack!
The noc yelped from the sting Bas sent across his chest. She watched a strip of flesh tear away in the same width as the belt. The hit swung the noc in the rope’s grasp, holding him above the ground. His skin looked strained under the purple bruising.
Thwack!
His legs floundered with the pain. Bas readied the belt above his head, for another forceful blow.
‘Are you good?’ Caden asked, but if she didn’t know better, his tone was more of an order than a question and she shook her head in quiet submission.
To buy some time J Rae, only for some time.
She looked at Caden’s broad shoulders blocking the sun’s cast, though they hunched in his new found moodiness. His hands still stretched out, surrounding her tiny frame, preparing to catch her tackle.
Thwack, thwack!
His shadow moved beside Bastiaan’s. She traced its edge until the morning sun made her squint, and Caden’s glare cut through her.
Caden shook his head. Daniel told her to leave again, and Bas swung his belt with a force that echoed in the wind and made the noc kick out in pain.
Julianna surveyed the company.
Bas raised his belt. ‘You going to speak?’
The noc glanced down from where the tire swing once amused young children. There was no tire now, just a body dripping, oozing slow warm trickles of blood. His pointed yellow teeth poked over his bottom lip, and he shook his head defiantly.
The noc’s dark blood slid thickly down the belt’s leather, into the dirt. Her stomach turned but they were distracted at the disobedience before them.
She stepped between them, and the prisoner.
‘Move away!’ Caden ordered.
Her shoulders felt Caden’s large hands dig in and drag her to his side once more. Julianna supposed it was her fault, but not like this. She never asked for this. He was doing it again, forcing her into the killing zone.
She tried to think.
Bas swung the belt.
Blood beaded along the new welt. The belt licked it clean. The solid buckle connected with the prisoner’s inner thigh, embedding itself, tearing at the skin as the belt latch hooked in.
Bas pulled it back. The skin ripped.
Blood sprayed, the prisoner screamed, and his legs thrashed wildly as the thick curdle of warmth ran fast down his nakedness, dripping from his toes.
Drip, drip, drip—
The dirt changed to a muddy brown. Her empty stomach threatened to raise any food she had left. The sour taste in her mouth was thick and she turned from the sight of his yellowish-white skin peeling away in strips, as Bas reeled his belt in for another deadly blow.
Another lash...and another, and another.
The prisoner screamed.
He’s making a nocturno scream! No, that’s enough. It’s enough, fuck!
‘Enough!’ she yelled. Her hands were to her mouth; her eyes stared at the macabre mess.
Caden leaned into her ear. ‘If you don’t like it, go inside,’ his grip left her shoulder. ‘You don’t need to see this.’
‘No. This is wrong,’ she said and stepped between Bas and the prisoner.
He’s about to go def-con-fucking-one on my ass.
She grabbed the wet leather and recoiled from the sticky mess that slipped through her fingers, sliding down for the buckle. She ripped it away and felt the wet leather slip from his hand to hers.
Bas narrowed his eyes and shook his head at his brother, before staring down at her again.
He looked from under his furrowed brow and his eyes though not changing, displayed one thing in his mind. Her punishment. He was the High Priest again. This wasn’t new to him; this is how the family punished the belligerent. She knew first hand. She still had the scars to prove it.
‘Do something Caden. Do something, or I’ll tear her apart, so help me I’ll rip her apart until nothing—’
She stepped closer to the noc with his belt held behind her. ‘I thought he was my prisoner, you’re torturing him.’
‘He’s a fucking prisoner of war!’ Bas yelled.
‘One that I took!’ she yelled back. ‘You’re not in the fucking family anymore!’
Caden paced with his hands running through his hair, not long enough to stick with the dirt he pushed through it. He stopped, concentrating on his stubble.
Bas lunged for the leather in her hand. She jumped as his fingertips scratched at her bare arms, moving from his reach. His eyes bore down on her. His intrusion pushed into her mind.
And…press play. The music switched to a tune she hummed quietly inside her mind, blocking his invasion. It infuriated Bas, what she sung had blocked his uninvited attention.
Daniel whispered through the music. She stopped the song in her mind, mid chorus, his warning heard.
Caden stood with his hand on his loose belt, tugging it free. The worn, scratched up buckle, rested comfortably in his hand
.
‘Step away, Julianna. It’s the last order I’m giving you.’
‘Go on, Julianna. Stop him. Untie me. I’ll talk. I’ll sing like a bird, I will. Just let me go from these ropes,’ the noc said.
She scrutinized the prisoner’s words over her shoulder. The cuts across his body zigzagged, with little red circles raised randomly, where the belt holes had hit. They’d undressed him for the occasion, down to his underwear, for their acts of cruelty.
Thwack!
Caden aimed his belt again. ‘I ordered you to move away!’
His scolding voice rang through her as much as the belting did. She touched the welt rising quickly across her forearm, looking up, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, with nothing to say.
‘Get inside the house,’ Daniel said lowly. ‘This isn’t for you.’
Julianna dropped the belt at Bas’s feet while Caden continued his aim.
‘This isn’t right,’ she said. It stopped Caden raising it farther. ‘What you’re doing is totally fucked up beyond all belief.’
SNAFU, that’s what they called it, yes SNAFU. Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.
She edged away slowly, cradling her arm, knowing her appointed watcher would pounce if she moved too quickly. His dark expression followed her.
‘What we’re doing…’ Bas said as he bent for his belt and snatched it from the ground with a sweeping gesture. ‘Is necessary.’
Her side glance caught Devo peering through the ripped curtains.
‘Necessary for the war, or for your satisfaction?’ She held her hands up at the sky…you’re still doing it…stop it…they’re gonna’ bite you. The sniggering prisoner interrupted her thoughts, she turned—
Thwack!
‘Urgh, fuck me!’ she screamed as she grabbed her waist and doubled up over the new welt. Caden’s belt licked her across the side he had offered to heal the night before. ‘Sonofabastard!’
He raised his arm again, along with his dark eyes and dark pout, the shirt sleeve fell loosely, away from the black markings of stature on his arm. Forewarned is forewarned, she thought.
Julianna looked up from the welt rising beneath the scar. He shook his head, his lip curled and he threatened her again.
